Happy 2016! Part 1: Life Update (Baby/Graduating College/Moving)

Well, I can’t even remember the last time I posted, but that is because life officially got insane….

I delivered a beautiful baby girl on November 17th. Unfortunately she was born with complications that led to a short stay in the NICU, but she is perfectly healthy now. If you remember, I was still finishing up my final semester, and this stay in the NICU was actually not in my college-town, so it put a lot more pressure on my coursework once we got back from the hospital. Commence a few weeks of 2 hours of sleep and a LOT of computer/course time and finally I got through everything. There were many times I wanted to just give up even though the light at the end of the tunnel was right there. Somehow, thanks to some much needed help from my mother and my husband, I finished all of my papers, engineering design projects (plus their corresponding reports), and finals. In fact, I managed one of my higher GPA semesters, and was just off making Dean’s List (which is very difficult in any engineering discipline).

Unfortunately, finishing my classes did not mean it was time to relax. My husband and I then had to immediately begin packing up our lives to move over 500 miles to where his job is located. I say “begin” because with the hospital time, him working remotely, a new baby, and me finishing classes…nothing had been packed. Also to make things crazier, I only finished my coursework 12 hours before the graduation ceremony,and my family AND my in-laws were both in town. Thankfully, all of the extra family members meant a lot of extra help with moving. Almost everything was completed in 4 hours the day of graduation itself. Unfortunately this packing was basically “throw everything into boxes and tape them” and wasn’t very organized. Then we made the VERY long drive with everything we owned and a 1 month old baby. Somehow we made it!

Finally, we are sort of moved in. Actually, we are living with our in-laws while we are searching for a house. This made things nice because we didn’t have to unpack kitchen/bathroom type items, and we can slowly go through everything. HOWEVER, my family was also staying with my in-laws for the holidays, so absolutely nothing productive was happening. We couldn’t even deal with any baby-things because that’s where my parents were sleeping.

Now, things have just started to settle down. My family has flown home, and our clothes are pretty much dealt with. The nursery is 90% done, just hanging some minimal decorations and bringing in the recliner remains.

I was also dabbling with the idea of setting up an actual domain/website of my own, but decided it would not be a good decision right now. Maybe in the future this year =)

I hope that 2015 treated you well and that you have a very Happy New Year! My next post will be all about de-cluttering again due to the move and my clothing/fitness situation now that I’m 6 weeks postpartum.

-Rachel

 

 

Unexpected Craziness.

I’m pregnant.

This is not a drill. I found out on Thursday, and now a LOT of things make sense. The biggest of things being why I’ve been SO exhausted all the time!

This is definitely happy news. After about 15 minutes of panic, my boyfriend and I realized that ultimately this was what we wanted with each other (just a few years down the road!). The timing isn’t ideal, but it’s also not so bad. He graduates with a BS and starts full time in August with a great company. I’m now trying to graduate in December and then I’ll probably take some time to raise our little one. I’ll be 22 and he’ll be 23 when I have our baby so it’s not like we’re teenagers, we just feel a bit young.

As far as my over-programmed schedule goes: I’m cutting out almost all of it.  I’m trying to make room just for classes so I have more time to sleep. I need so much sleep.

I’m about 7-8 weeks in so the morning sickness has started, and been not so great. I’ve been nauseous the last week and a half, and throwing up the last 3 days. The nausea is actually what led me to the store to buy pepto bismol, at which point I had this really strong feeling to go buy a test. Two home test positives and two doctor’s office positives later here I am.

Ginger ale is my best friend, and thankfully my boyfriend is being extremely nice to me and pretty much helping with anything he possibly can.

Speaking of him, we plan on getting legally married before baby, and having a ceremony likely Summer or Fall 2016.

There’s currently a lot on my to-do list such as scheduling my graduation date, finding a new apartment, telling our parents (we want to have a relative life plan set up), and maybe getting a job.

This blog may take an unexpected direction, but I will DEFINITELY need advice on what to buy for baby and what is not necessary. I know there will be many items either way, but if I can cut it down even a little that’d be awesome.

-Rachel